iPhone: Phoenix (by Firi Games)

Guys and girls, Phoenix is no longer available on the App Store. The much bigger, better and improved Phoenix HD, however, is available for all your delicious bullet hell cravings. Please join the Phoenix HD discussion in this thread.

I'm not the biggest shmup fan in the world, but have to say I really like this one. Graphics are crisp and clear, sound is satisfying, frame rate super smooth and controls just right. One of the best $1 games out there for mine.

Well, sure it could use a way to play your own music, and the patterns are a bit haphazard, but I'm still really enjoying this. Bullet Hell + randomly generated levels is pretty much a perfect formula for gaming bliss for me though. It looks great, plays great, and of course there is no slowdown at all on my 2G.

I do have one question--how does one know how many hits are left until it's game over?

I didn't think Icarus X was all that bad, but this looks insane. I'll definitely be picking this one up tomorrow if not in a half hour or so.

There are more options for 2G compatible bullet Hell style shooters than people seem to realize. rRootage Online, Astrowings, and Assault Squadron are all varying degrees of bullet Hell style and all are very good in my opinion. Also, apparently ISUD can be played on 2G devices if downloaded directly onto the device although I have not personally tried that one. (Edit: forgot to mention Noiz2sa as well).

Phoenix is every bit worth the 99 cents and more though. I'd have paid $2.99 for this gladly and not been disappointed.

Not bad at all. My first game on 3 star difficulty got me rank #5 in the US and #16 in the world.

But this game will never ever touch a real bullet hell game until you make either the ship sprite smaller or its hitbox smaller. With the bullet patterns you have now and the size of the ship and its hitbox, the game feels cheap and unfair.

Not bad at all. My first game on 3 star difficulty got me rank #5 in the US and #16 in the world.

But this game will never ever touch a real bullet hell game until you make either the ship sprite smaller or its hitbox smaller. With the bullet patterns you have now and the size of the ship and its hitbox, the game feels cheap and unfair.

Please think about patching. Thanks.

I was thinking the hitbox felt a bit big as well. Glad it's not just me.

Just picked this up because I love shmups and where this maybe not the best on the idevice that goes to the 2 cave games . This is a decent game for a buck yeah it doesnt have a flash menu but is that really important . I agree with the comments about the ship needing to be a bit smaller but again only a minor problem . The great thing is that it's different everytime you play . Personally I can't see anyone being disappointed after purchasing this for a buck or 59p In my case where else could you get this much enjoyment for that .

Ok been playing it, and it feels really solid, the groundwork is there, but it is missing up a few things that would actually make it fun for me(just gameplay tweaks really). Your ship, and the enemy ship are too big, and your hit box feels too big for sure. Also the enemy ships take way to long to kill, they should go down very quickly in general, with a few bigger ships that take a bit longer to destroy. They are just there to give you points, the bullets are the real danger, and forcing me to stay in one place long enough to kill the basic cruisers is a bit much; like I said tho, occasional bigger/stronger ships for variety, but grunts should be smaller and much more numerous and quicker to kill. Also the bullets need to pop out more, be more bright or colorful, something to make them clear. All dark red, coming from big red enemies doesn't work for me, I think just giving them three distinct popping colours would do a lot to break up the monotony and make the game feel farer.

Now those to me are just gameplay tweaks. The game does do a lot well, I think the simple menu interface is very nice actually. I think the bullet style, and patterns are great. And I love how the difficulty slider works, so like I said the groundwork is solid.

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